Oxen secure second league game of the season

Chinnor Vets travelled to Surrey University on Saturday for only their second game of the league campaign and with a much changed team were not quite sure what to expect. With only 16 in the squad it was looking like a tough assignment and with a fast, hard pitch to cope with there was sure to be some tired souls and limbs at the end of play. We were delighted to welcome young Max into the team and he greatly impressed on his debut with aggressive fast carrying and superb defence. It was agreed afterwards that he needs at least a couple more games with the Vets before the Wildboys get hold of him.

Chinnor immediately went on the attack and benefitted from a series of indiscretions from the students. This enabled Begley to put us in some great positions which were capitalised on in unerring fashion. The whole performance had its foundations on a very strong and well functioning set piece. Early dominance in the scrums and lineout led to two tries within the 1st quarter with Begley finishing with a clever low dive from a quick tap and the forwards powering over from a good lineout drive to give the old men a 14-0 lead. Since his demotion to the ranks the erstwhile Captain seems to have added a few feet to his jump and some extra seconds to his hang time giving Wiltshire a good target to hit.

Chinnor continued to exert authority at close quarters and after a series of pick and drives with Roger and Wiltshire to the fore it looked like another try was inevitable. However a loose pass was snaffled by the very pacey opposing 7 and he scorched 90 metres to score. This illustrated how dangerous the students could be and they indeed seemed a stronger outfit than last season. Moments later it looked like these events would repeat themselves when the students attacked from deep from a turnover. It seemed the scores were going to be level until Turnbull produced the defensive play of the match by tracking the runners 70 metres and catching up the opposing winger and pulling off a stunning tackle.

Chinnor realised the game was very much in the balance and really raised the intensity of the defence with some big tackles in midfield where Bailey and Brooks were prominent. Brooks managed to tackle the opposing 12 with his ear at such ferocity that the ball carrier had to leave to field with a damaged shoulder. Luckily Brooks had no such injury concerns with no visible impact to his ear.

Chinnor increased the interval lead to 26-7 with two quick fire tries in the last 10 minutes of the half when Bridges took an inside line from Begley , stepped the cover defence and powered over from 25 metres. Fincken then joined the party with a trademark drive from the base of another driving maul.

The second half continued in a similar vein with Chinnor thriving on the flow of quality set piece possession. Turnbull followed up his first half defensive heroics with an attacking move straight out of the top drawer. From a smooth lineout and a couple of forward drives Begley attacked the line and fed a rampaging Turnbull on a sublime angle and he scorched past the fullback to score under the posts. This was swiftly followed by Pearson stepping inside the cover defence and carrying several defenders over the line.

The rest of the game was played out in a high quality fashion with Chinnor showing the ability to play an all court game epitomised by Cosha’s back to the future return to full back. Indeed with 10 minutes to go Cosha wishing to showcase his unique total rugby playing ability offered to swap positions with Wiltshire at hooker. This was politely declined by the incumbent 2 who was continuing to enjoy the front five dominance where Burnham continued his highly energetic game.

It was appropriate that the last try was scored by our impressive debutant who had just previously pulled off a try saving tackle on his opposite wing after another long range attack by Surrey University.

A final score of 42 -14 showed what a professional team effort was produced against an entertaining and lively Surrey University.

Max added to his stock when he produced a fine effort in his man of the match beer challenge to see off his opposite. Deeley matched the performance to also win the beer off for Dick of the day. He had been nominated for a rather loose out the back door pass which happened to travel 40 metres backwards in the direction of nobody in particular. It does have to be said that he had pulled off a rather more sublime version earlier in the match which had bamboozled the defence so much that a couple of students broke out in applause. Still the nomination was controversial in some quarters and Wiltshire was heard to say it was an outrage and surely Cosha should have been nominated for his snap drop goal attempt which scrapped the posts from 45 metres….Maybe he is eyeing that fullback position after all?